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Topic: Purple smears on camembert? (Read 2875 times)

So I have some camembert that has been ripening for a few weeks now but has developed purple smears on the outside. Any opinions as to whether it is ok to eat. Im thinking it maybe cross contamination from some blue I also have ripening

I agree with gsager. I've not yet seen a purple mold on any of my cheeses, but I'd finish aging it and at least give it a taste. Even if the rind turns out to be less than palatable the paste might still be good.

Now that you did not die... I'd want to try to answer the question "what happened?". IMHE (in my humble experience), if the spots come through all over the cheese surface - like a rash, then I think that the contamination occurred before moulding, in my case the source was a batch of parlour contaminated milk (poor pipe cleaning before milking). The fact that the contaminant is only on the edge makes me think that your contaminant arrived after the curds were placed in the moulds. Maybe the mould edges were not properly sanitised? or the cheese edges brushed a humid surface or cloth? or your hands (fingernails especially), or during washing?

So took one of the cheeses to a friends place. He loved it and ate about 1/2 of it. The taste was strong. too strong for me. Definately had that french cabbagey camebert taste to it. Also the insides were liquidified. Like fondu.

The moulds were all sanitised by leaving in the sink with iodine solution. I think maybe i was getting some cross comtamination in my fridge when i was turning them. I was also aging some stiltons. I think i will clean out my fridge completely when i finish aging my last tomme thats in there at the moment. Give every thing a really good wash.

Mmmmmm Tomme . .. . cant wait to eat that. Oh and there is still a waxed segment of gouda that has been in there over a year now . . . should break that out soon